At the end of May was invited to the Climbers Club book launch for the new climbing guidebook to the Lleyn Peninsula (titled ‘Pen Llŷn’). It was such a busy time for us, that I purposely didn’t even open the new book so that I couldn’t get distracted from the various expeditions that I was involved with planning along with renovations at The Cottage. With a good forecast on the horizon and a two day period suddenly available to us, we threw some climbing kit and a sleeping bag in the back of the van and set off to Llanbedrog.

It’s only an hour away from The Cottage, we we thought we’d make an adventure out of it by staying away for the night. The climbs out here don’t get many ascents compared to Snowdonia, so when the guidebook suggested following a ‘faint path’, we knew we’d be in for some bracken and gorse bashing! It got nearly head high before we located the cliffs!

But as promised, we did find a new cliff that we’d never been to before!

It was a beautiful warm afternoon – we’d chosen the crag as it was sheltered from the north westerly wind and would be in the sun. As such, it also made for a good picnic spot too!

As anticipated, the rock was a bit overgrown in places, had some loose holds in places and the first route we tried had no protection until about 10m up! Care was certainly needed. Having retreated from our first attempt, we climbed a better route on which we could see plenty of cracks to place protection in. The best bit was this quarry bore hole – the perfect placement!

The sun was out and we were climbing new granite cliffs.

After two pitches, I reached the top and a surprisingly solid belay. A Heron fly by along the waters edge as Clare was climbing.

Rather than hike back up the steep and overgrown path, I abseiled back to the bags as our ropes were just long enough, then Clare belayed me back up, climbing with both rucsacks on. This put us on the Welsh Coastal Path and an easy walk back to the car past the Iron Man. There had been talk of a swim at the sheltered beach, but it had lost the sun and the tide was miles out so it became less appealing as we reached the sand.

Clare had located us a campsite nearby, which turned out to be almost completely empty. A cheery farmer said everything was unlocked and that we had the run of the place – park wherever you like! Soon enough we had a fine feast prepared and were bedding down feeling content.

We slept soundly and it was nearly 9am by the time we got the morning brews organised. There was no rush though as a mist was covering the sea and the air felt nippy.

As we were packing up camp, it started to rain and the temperature noticeably dropped. It wasn’t going to be a climbing day, but it could be a swim day still!

We located a suitably sheltered beach from the wind that had started to rock the van. It was high tide so we didn’t even check the beach when we pulled up – instead we put on swimmers and ran down to the water.

For the first time in a while, we actually got quite cold and didn’t warm up straight away. We drove off with the heaters on in search of a cafe, but found none! A little job along Trefor Beach on the north coast on the way home helped – even though the cafe was closed when we got there!

It was time to head home!….

Ty’n Ttwyn Quarry Climbs (Quarry #5 Climbs)

• Sanatogen, VD* – 2 pitches well protected
• Exlax, HS (4a)* – Poor protection (TR)